"Nokia's latest device, the N800 Internet Tablet, is unique, to say the least. It's not a smartphone, yet it can send and receive e-mail messages; it's not a phone, yet it can make phone calls; it's not a portable multimedia player; yet it can playback audio/video files; and it's not a notebook, yet it can browser the web. Are you confused yet? Alright, let's see if we can define the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. The N800 does a lot of things, but it can't be placed in any one of the multitude of portable categories. Nope, it's in a category all by itself."

Having an extremely portable Linux tablet such as the N800 is a dream come true. Excellent battery life, exceptional WLAN reception, active open source community, growing software catalog, very good browser, brilliant screen, and tremendous hackability. It's so good I can't wait to be blown away by the next generation and the next generation and so forth.

Stop by www.internettablettalk.com and www.maemo.org for an abundance of information.

I haven't purchased either Nokia N device, just because I have no real need for them, but I have always been a huge fan. I wonder how they will stack up to Intel's upcoming MID. I think they will be in the same category.

Fantastic screen, somewhat clunky default apps, somewhat lackluster video playback which uses a very constrained format. Its major problem is that it doesn't replace any of the 3 devices it could replace, but instead only adds yet another device to your daily life to keep track of. Sadly, until it does actually replace at least one other device, I can't see it taking off. On the other hand, I said that until the iPod included a PIM that it wouldn't take off, either, so it's entirely likely I'm wrong, wrong, wrong.

Anyway I own one of these N800 devices & its interesting technology. Overall I like it & see the promise of this & future Linux based handheld(s). I have had mine for about a months time.

Here are some warts that I noticed (that BTW, may get fixed with updates/revisions). Just my out of the box experience):

(no particular order of importance)

(a) an OS update (flashing) really requires WinXP. The latest upgrade will not work with OSX 10.4.9 (PPC)... OS upgrades to N800 may work better with Linux (as you would expect, however I currently have no i386 system to test this on).

(b) if you are going to do s/w development for this device you need to have an i386 system with Debian installed (Ubuntu is aok as it is Debian based at its core). This is necessary as the cross compiler needs an i386 to operate).

(c) The built in browser is Opera and even though it is pretty basic, it works aok. However flash is @ version 7 AND importantly, there is no codec to play FLV files. In other words any YouTube viewing (or its like) is out til someone gets a package(s) updates that will support this filetype. I think this the devices main flaw & needs to be resolved pronto or else wait for the 'N900?'.

(d) Updating of other s/w packages is a bit of a mix/match affair. Not 1 site to visit for updates to the device. I hope some company &/or software develoepr comes up with a 1 stop deb based package repository for this device. Mameo.org doesnt really completely fulfull this need (at present). To say this in a different way good luck to poor old non-techie 'aunt salley' if she wants to get her N800 updated with new things &/or patches... Its for tech heads only at present.

and my writeup of customizing it, is still hugely popular.
If you are interested you can read it here: http://blog.2blocksaway.com/2007/02/02/customizing-the-nokia-n800-a...
I have gotten mail from people deploying the N800 as standard mobile internet platforms in larger companies using this guide to roll out completely standardized devices. I think its an amazing platform and people generally don't use it to the fullest.

I like the device, but I don't use it much more other than playing Mahjong on it (I got a record of 2:56 minutes - what's yours?).

My wishes:
1. Add SDHC kernel support by default
2. Add h.264 video playback support and fix 3GP support.
3. Make any arbitrary video resolution to work with the media player (right now, it must be a multiple of 16).
4. Add A2DP/AVRCP/HSP/HFP BT support for use with VoIP and music.

That's about it, especially because Flash Video is more watchable after the firmware upgrade.

Eugenia, which "field"? My wife got 2:01 on the standard.. myself I am at 3:12 or something...

Anyway, I know SOME of the issues you are talking about is in development mainly the 3GP fix and the video resolution "independance" .. h264 I am not sure if the hardware is really on par for it. I can be wrong though.

Otherwise I agree with you.. kickass device. Oh and btw, the GPS add-on that Nokia sells for the N770 (works with the N800 too) is REALLY nice.. the only problem is the price tag for both together ...

I like how they are so amazed when they discover (WOW!) that it sounds better through earphones than through the tiny, built-in speakers.

Made it a bit hard to take the review seriously. I thought that other than that, it was pretty good though. I wonder what sort of niche this device can fulfill.. I certainly can't think of anyone I know who would have a use for one.

I bought mine from the US almost 2 months ago, but I'm mostly using it in Europe.

In Europe the S signal for FM Radio is usually located in a different range, and while the FM reception is brilliant, it is mostly in MONO and not STEREO. It is in STEREO only within a couple of KM of the radio station (where the signal is brilliant). I am sure that European N800's don't have this problem.

I have also found that on some 802.11g access points, it only connects at 1 Mbps, and can get at most 500 Kbps out of them. This is annoying when you want to install a new application or when you want to update the installed ones.

There are still a few bugs with the lock screen window management code, that can be solved only by a reboot. It happens when the last focused "window" is the radio widget.

Other than that it is a wonderful device, and I couldn't imagine my life without-it. I am sure that the engineers at Nokia will fix all these issues in one of the following software releases.